ARE SAILORS' SYMPTOMS FROM RADIATION?

Lawyer says crew members had high exposure; Pentagon says Navy took ‘proactive measures’

Fewer than 150 of 17,000 workers at the Fukushima plant showed slightly elevated levels of radiation, according to figures from cancer specialist Dr. John Boice, a member of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements. The doses detected might increase their lifetime risk of cancer by 2 percent, he said at the Press Club conference.

On the Reagan, the crew was ordered to close hatches and vents to prevent outside air from entering. They were also told not to drink the ship’s potable water.

The environmental lawyer representing the Reagan sailors said their radiation exposure exceeded the acceptable level, but he declined to place a figure on how much he suspects they received.

Attorney Paul Garner said he is awaiting disclosure from the Pentagon, the Navy and Japan about what their instruments showed. The Japanese Fukushima Daiichi power plant, on the coast 150 miles northeast of Tokyo, is owned by Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Tepco.

“We know it was higher levels than have been initially reported by the Tepco people as being low-dose,” Garner said. “It’s much worse than those who got radiation poisoning in Chernobyl and survived for a few years.”

The U.S. Defense Department has created a registry for the 70,000 Pentagon-affiliated people who were in Japan or off the coast during the first three months of the disaster. A website for this registry said that it would provide radiation exposure estimates for all 70,000 by the end of 2012.

However, figures for U.S. Navy ships serving off the coast of Japan — including the Reagan, and the San Diego-based warships Preble and Chancellorsville, plus the carrier George Washington and amphibious ship Essex, among several other American military vessels — are not yet available on the website.

The Navy’s largest ship base in Japan — in Yokosuka, about 185 miles southwest of the nuclear plant — measured levels that are minimal and well below dangerous, according to Pentagon figures.

Helicopters from the Reagan flew search-and-rescue missions over Japan in the days after the 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami. In April 2011, Camp Pendleton Marines from the Essex went ashore to help clear debris on Oshima, an island 45 miles from the earthquake’s epicenter.

Garner said he plans to file additional lawsuits on behalf of other Navy and Marine Corps personnel who are now sick after Operation Tomodachi. The first lawsuit was filed Dec. 21 in San Diego federal court, and he expects to lodge a second there. Others may come in other jurisdictions.

The lawyer said he and his partners have launched a medical study of American personnel involved in the rescue mission. Calling it Operation Tomodachi Revisited, he said it is open to more participants at no cost to the service member. Blood tests will be taken.

Asked to comment on the lawsuit, Pentagon officials released a statement saying that the Navy took “proactive measures” to safeguard sailors.

With more than 5,000 people aboard, the Reagan was operating at sea about 100 miles northeast of the power plant after the earthquake.